Federal Court Decides Case Regarding Capital One Collections

Posted By Ronald Wilcox || 19-Mar-2012

A Federal District Court within the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (whose jurisdiction includes federal courts in California) has held that a consumer failed to adequately plead that Capital One Services, LLC was a debt collector required to comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Pitner v. Capital One Services, LLC and Northland Group, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9180 (W.D. WA, January 26, 2012).

The husband and wife claimed that Capital One continued to contact them even after they informed the bank they were represented by a lawyer (and thus Capital One should contact the lawyer and leave the couple alone).

It has been reported that Capital One is very aggressive in its attempts to collect debts from consumers, even attempting to chase them after the consumer had filed bankruptcy!

Capital One basically argues that since it was an original creditor, and not a collection agency attempting to collect the debt for someone else, it was immune from the federal FDCPA. The Court threw out the consumer's claims, noting that the consumers failed to even allege that the defendants what was necessary to prove Capital One was a debt collector under federal law.

However, creditors like Capital One should be careful when collecting debts in states such as California, where the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does apply to banks and original creditors when they are collecting their own debts. Thus, in California banks and creditors are not immune from consumer protection laws that prevent debt collectors, banks and creditors from abusing, harassing, or misleading consumers.

Our San Jose law office protects consumers from being harassed by debt collectors. We are investigating claims against Capital One for allegedly violating the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Acts.

If you are being contacted by Capital One or any other creditors or debt collectors, give us a call at 408-296-0400.